Family planning participants down

Bogor (JP): The Bogor mayor has complained that the current economic crisis has reduced the participants of the family planning program in the area.

Speaking at a family planning meeting organized by the military here on Thursday, Ishwara Natanagara, the Bogor mayor, said that the economic crisis had rendered many participants unable to buy contraceptives.

"New participants have also decreased. Therefore, we demand that family planning services for poor people are given free of charge," he said.

To make matters worse, the use of condoms is not popular among men in Bogor, as is the case with most Indonesian men.

The head of Bogor's Coordinating Agency for Family Planning Nia Syarief said during the meeting that male participants in Bogor were only 0.08 percent of the total 9,460 new participants this year.(21)